International Organizations work in various ways to settle the issue of Japan's sexual enslavement of women worldwide
- 6 years ago
South Korea isn't the only country that suffered from Japan's wartime sexual slavery.
A significant number of victims also came from other Asian countries including China, the Philippines and East Timor and even outside the continent, the Netherlands.
And with the issue still unresolved,.... many international organizations are fighting in their own ways to demand that Japan issue a sincere apology.
Lee Ji-won reports.
As many as 410-thousand women and girls around the world are estimated to have been kidnapped and forced to serve Japanese soldiers at military brothels during World War Two.
The victims have never received a sincere apology or legal compensation from the Japanese government,... but various international organizations have been working together to try and settle the problem in their own ways,... and to prevent such horrendous acts from being repeated.
One such organization is the Asian Solidarity Conference for the Issue of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. There, around 10 countries meet to share the victims' testimonies and urge Japan to sincerely apologize.
"We've been meeting since 1992,... and have been carrying out a range of activities like helping countries set up comfort women statues. In 2000, the conference successfully opened the Women's international War Crimes Tribunal on the comfort women issue in Japan,.... and it deemed Japan's late Emperor Hirohito and others guilty for their knowing participation in the crimes."
But despite such efforts, the Japanese government remains silent on the matter.
"At this year's conference held in Korea, we had asked the Japanese embassy to sit down with the victims. But in the end, it called the police to keep their gate shut,... leaving the elderly victims from Indonesia and China waiting in the cold for an hour."
Another group works to remember this brutal chapter in history by having related documents registered in UNESCO's Memory of the World list.
The documents include historical evidence, testimony and paintings produced by the victims.
The eight victim countries submitted more than 27-hundred records in 2016.
But in a meeting last year, UNESCO postponed listing the documents on its register, after a Japanese civic group submitted similar documents with a different interpretation.
UNESCO said more discussions are needed between the two sides, but many see it as a scripted play.
"The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO last year, and Japan, the next biggest donor, held back its payment,... pressuring UNESCO to decide in favor of Tokyo. We even got testimony from expert panels that the Japanese government lobbied them to block this registry."
As for now, Han says that the international body has nominated a mediator for the talks it recommended and that details will soon be announced.
The issue is still far from resolved, and settling it won't be easy.
"There hasn't been much progress in getting a sincere apology from Japan. This can be seen
A significant number of victims also came from other Asian countries including China, the Philippines and East Timor and even outside the continent, the Netherlands.
And with the issue still unresolved,.... many international organizations are fighting in their own ways to demand that Japan issue a sincere apology.
Lee Ji-won reports.
As many as 410-thousand women and girls around the world are estimated to have been kidnapped and forced to serve Japanese soldiers at military brothels during World War Two.
The victims have never received a sincere apology or legal compensation from the Japanese government,... but various international organizations have been working together to try and settle the problem in their own ways,... and to prevent such horrendous acts from being repeated.
One such organization is the Asian Solidarity Conference for the Issue of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. There, around 10 countries meet to share the victims' testimonies and urge Japan to sincerely apologize.
"We've been meeting since 1992,... and have been carrying out a range of activities like helping countries set up comfort women statues. In 2000, the conference successfully opened the Women's international War Crimes Tribunal on the comfort women issue in Japan,.... and it deemed Japan's late Emperor Hirohito and others guilty for their knowing participation in the crimes."
But despite such efforts, the Japanese government remains silent on the matter.
"At this year's conference held in Korea, we had asked the Japanese embassy to sit down with the victims. But in the end, it called the police to keep their gate shut,... leaving the elderly victims from Indonesia and China waiting in the cold for an hour."
Another group works to remember this brutal chapter in history by having related documents registered in UNESCO's Memory of the World list.
The documents include historical evidence, testimony and paintings produced by the victims.
The eight victim countries submitted more than 27-hundred records in 2016.
But in a meeting last year, UNESCO postponed listing the documents on its register, after a Japanese civic group submitted similar documents with a different interpretation.
UNESCO said more discussions are needed between the two sides, but many see it as a scripted play.
"The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO last year, and Japan, the next biggest donor, held back its payment,... pressuring UNESCO to decide in favor of Tokyo. We even got testimony from expert panels that the Japanese government lobbied them to block this registry."
As for now, Han says that the international body has nominated a mediator for the talks it recommended and that details will soon be announced.
The issue is still far from resolved, and settling it won't be easy.
"There hasn't been much progress in getting a sincere apology from Japan. This can be seen